Pat Pemberton is a brilliant athlete, except when her domineering fiancé is around. The ladies golf championship is in her reach until she gets flustered by his presence at the final holes. He wants them to get married and forget the whole thing, but she cannot give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan, a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer, and a growing mutual attraction.
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I love this movie so much
Touches You
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Certainly an intriguing concept-a Runyonesque story about a shady sports promoter who finds a female athlete and decides he can make her a big sports star and a moneymaker for himself, except that she only plays well when her domineering fiancée is not around. She turns out to be rebellious if either her fiancée or her promoter push her around too much. And there is good chemistry and interaction between the leads.Yet the movie has its faults too, namely being too long for what it is, with sports sequences that go one for longer than they need to, and the rather pointless inclusion of the boxer the promoter also has under his wing. Also, though the movie is presumably a comedy, it has few laughs in it. The movie tries, but it never quite satisfies in the end.
I didn't like "Pat and Mike" when I first saw it in an MGM revival season at the movies. I still didn't like it when I viewed it on TV. So it was with rather mixed feelings that I decided to watch the DVD. I thought I could always turn it off if it was just as uninteresting and unfunny and as plain boring as I remembered it. But I was wrong. This time, I found the movie thoroughly entertaining. I enjoyed the script which provided Katherine Hepburn with so many wonderful opportunities to shine brightly and take the lead. I thought Tracy gave her excellent support. I wasn't over-impressed with Aldo Ray, but his role is small and he does no damage. I was surprised that George Cukor was able to stage all the sporting events so convincingly. Action is not generally regarded as his forte, but this time, no doubt aided by Hepburn herself and the other specialists on tap, he came through most convincingly not only on the various sport fronts, but on such wonderful scenes as when Hepburn beats all the bullies at their own game! My only quibble is that maybe we see too much of William Ching's character. In real life, one would hope that a Hepburn clone would give him his walking papers much sooner! But otherwise Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin have provided a most entertaining, yet pleasingly unusual script. It's definitely one for connoisseurs.
First off, I love the clothes Spencer Tracy wore in this flick. I guess that says something negative about my own tastes...although I wouldn't wear those clothes...but he sure looked nifty! And I hated the music during the opening and closing credits of the film. Among the worse I've ever heard in a motion picture! But then the movie settles down nicely as we learn that Pat (Katharine Hepburn) is a very talented sports person, whose biggest problem seems to be her fiancé, who unconsciously intimidates her. We discover she's super at golf, tennis, shooting, self defense, and a myriad of other sports. And, lots of this was really done by Hepburn for the cameras! Hepburn is perfect here.Then she meets Mike, a just slightly seedy sports manager, who at first wants to use her to throw a golf match, but later manages her legitimately. Tracy is perfect here, and that's high praise because here he is playing a very different type of character where his typical understated acting isn't right for the part.There are a bevy of supporting actors here who are fun to watch: Chuck Connors (his first movie role), a young Charles Bronson, and a very welcome Jim Backus in the early part of the film.Of the five romantic comedies that Hepburn and Tracy appeared in, this is in the top half -- not as good as "Adams' Rib", but better than the others. It deserves a place on your DVD shelf!
This was Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn's last MGM movie made together, and equally as good as their two finest ("Woman of the Year" and "Adam's Rib"). The film focuses on Hepburn, a world-class athlete who has a problem in golf and tennis matches any time her fiancée (William Ching) is around. Spencer Tracy plays a New York sports agent who notices her talent and takes her on as a client. He finds she is just as determined as he is, and they make an incredible pair as she gets ready for a world class tennis event. But when Ching shows up, all of a sudden, the net is too high, her racket too small, and one ball coming at her looks like a dozen. That's when Tracy steps in to try and keep her fiancée away from her, as well as deal with the mobsters who put up the money for her in the first place.There is no doubt that Tracy and Hepburn together had as much chemistry as any super couple on the movie screen in the golden days of Hollywood. Add on the writing team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (looking for another hit for them after "Adam's Rib"), and you have the tools towards one of the smartest comedies of the 1950's. Aldo Ray is hysterical as a dumb boxing client of Tracy's, and is surrounded by a perfect supporting cast. Phyllis Povah, the baby machine of 1939's "The Women", plays the chatty lady who annoys Hepburn during a golf game, while Charles Buchinski seems a bit familiar as one of the mobsters whom Hepburn beats up (by picking him up by the pant legs). Oh, wait a minute....It's future action superstar Charles Bronson, long before stardom, but extremely amusing in a rare comedy role. Fortunately, while this was their last MGM film together, they had two more to go-"Desk Set" over at Fox (a delightfully funny spoof about the future of corporate research) and Columbia's controversial "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".